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zzfinch's review
adventurous
funny
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Alcoholism, Addiction, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Alcohol
bigcitydreamer's review
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This is a glorious, indulgent, richly layered book for anyone who loves dining out in New York. I didn't realize he opened his own place, and Cecchi's is hot on my list for my next trip to the city!
sophslaw's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
fast-paced
3.75
read for the memz of New York, or shall I say the stereotypical New York chaos centered around the restaurant business. I thought it was good, interesting to see the progression throughout time, but not a book for everyone. highly recommend the audiobook version.
cassafrassandfries's review
funny
medium-paced
2.0
I listened to this as an audiobook for free using my Libby App with my Carnegie Library Card. This is a memoir of a Maitre D’ in New York City in from the late 1970s to the present day. This starts out with the author describing a bit about his life growing up with a single mother, in a mob-connected family in NYC. Honestly, the mob stuff was the best part. The profanity in this is gratuitous. This man is reliving his “glory days” as if he were a Texas football star who had won the state championship and then gone on to become a used car salesman in his home town. He expands redundantly on the partying, sex, drugs, liquor, and general debauchery of the 80s & 90s. The general flow of this is chronological, but I frequently felt a little confused on the timeline. He would jump forward and backward in time based on his story and I often found myself feeling a little lost. He would also throw in seemingly unrelated anecdotes that often felt out of context and jarred me out of the general story line. He goes on some serious tangential rants about the restaurant industry, NYC, and life in general. I didn’t really need those. I don’t consider myself a prude since I have unfortunately developed the mouth of a sailor over the course of the last 28 years, and many of my five start book reviews are for romance novels with their fair share of smut, but this was honestly just excessively profane in a way that didn’t add anyting to the writing. The author is generally self-aggrandizing, likes to name drop here and there (but not give up the actually interesting and good names!?), and is generally repetitive. While I did enjoy hearing some of the “tea” on famous people, hearing about NYC in different eras of time was interesting, and the fact that some of the restaurants he names are famous places mentioned in TV and cinema (think Samantha getting the girls into the hottest new restaurant on Sex and the City), this was not a win for me. I think his narration of the audiobook actually saved this for me. His tone and narration felt like an overly exuberant friend telling me a “wild and crazy” story about work. While annoying at times, his voice wasn’t bad to listen to and he’s a natural narrator. He’s funny and quippy and made some of these stories more entertaining than they probably were in real life. I probably would have seriously considered not finishing this one if it wasn’t for this being a book club read for me. Overall, wouldn’t recommend unless you’re SUPER into the NYC restaurant scene, or you just REALLY love reading profane prose about cocaine, sex, and food.
miatia_12's review
3.0
fun look at restaurant industry. some stories definitely seem exaggerated and unreliable